I finally got to try out a Mesa pre last night. Our guitar player bought one off ebay. Only the "A" output was working and no reverb but I was really surprised how sweet it was through only half of my rig (Mosvalve 500 and PV 112-E speakers).
I don't like a lot of effects but do lean on them to smooth my sound but playing dry and sounding so sweet was really cool. I played my Strat through it too and it sounded awesome with the same settings!
Here are my questions:
1)Why do some Mesas' have a pot for the effects send an some have a 2 way toggle?
2) Does anyone use the lead channel with the drive down and the master up? I almost like the extra punch without distortion.
3) What effects works well in the loop?
So I finally got to hear the "Franklin" sound (Franklin w/ 705's, Mosvalve 500, PV speakers) and I like what I heard
Bob, I recall reading somewhere that Paul uses the "studio" or "recording" outputs. Those outputs have a steep low-pass-filter that dumps frequencies above 5kHz. That's their way of emulating a guitar speaker when going direct. But I read that he uses those outputs to feed the Mosvalve amp into the Black Widows. Maybe Paul can confirm this for us.
Brad Sarno wrote:Bob, I recall reading somewhere that Paul uses the "studio" or "recording" outputs. Those outputs have a steep low-pass-filter that dumps frequencies above 5kHz. That's their way of emulating a guitar speaker when going direct. But I read that he uses those outputs to feed the Mosvalve amp into the Black Widows. Maybe Paul can confirm this for us.
Brad
Thanks, Brad
I tried those outputs and they were way too dull. Paul told me he hates going direct although one of my favorite albums (GS Something Special)he was "forced" to
Bob My studio pre doesnt have a pot for effects send.The effects toggle on the back has 2 modes line and low.Use the low with stomp boxes(lower input gain less hiss) and line with quality rack units. The master volume controls the effects send level and the user manual states 5 is the right amount,however for clean on the rhythm channel the volume needs to be at 5 or 6 and the master up but this depends on your power amp.Also if your not stereo you can go into the input and bypass the effects loop.Take the cover off the unit and look at the reverb tank. Mine had a wire that had broke free from the tank and now works fine.Once you get these dialed in they sound great.I havent tried the lead channel for clean but will try that.
I was going to speculate that the fx toggle might be a parallel/series selector (such as I have on one amp) but Tim's answer makes sense---I was looking at a manual that says that some fx units cannot take the Boogie's fx signal send level (it names names and suggests that you complain to them, the fx makers and not to Mesa. It provides a mod suggestion involving changing a couple of resistors. My guess is that they later went and upgraded the Boogie with the toggle as a more proactive solution to the issue instead of just saying "we know there's a problem--don't blame us."
What causes the reverb hum in some of the Mesa pre's, and is there a fix? The one I'm interested in buying has a hum past "3" and I do plan on using it.
I wouldn't suspect that the tube would make any difference in the hum. Maybe Boogie addressed the issue at some point. Re-orienting the transformer or the spring pickup coil, or maybe even a mu-metal shield could help it. Perhaps a more humbucking spring pickup would have done it as well. Just guessing.
Brad Sarno wrote:I wouldn't suspect that the tube would make any difference in the hum. Maybe Boogie addressed the issue at some point. Re-orienting the transformer or the spring pickup coil, or maybe even a mu-metal shield could help it. Perhaps a more humbucking spring pickup would have done it as well. Just guessing.
Brad Sarno wrote:I wouldn't suspect that the tube would make any difference in the hum. Maybe Boogie addressed the issue at some point. Re-orienting the transformer or the spring pickup coil, or maybe even a mu-metal shield could help it. Perhaps a more humbucking spring pickup would have done it as well. Just guessing.
Brad
Brad
I called them yesterday and they said to send it in for repair! Only when I asked if it could be the reverb tube did they say "oh sure". A couple people on the yahoo mesa list suggested the tube also. Any chance at all? That would sure be better than sending it to them!
Bob, I tried everything to get the hum to go away. I finally abandoned the reverb and went to an RV-3. I thinkj it is an intrinsic problem with the preamp.
Bob, I tried everything to get the hum to go away. I finally abandoned the reverb and went to an RV-3. I think it is an intrinsic problem with the preamp.
Bob, that seems weird to me that the hum would disappear in the recording outs. Unless the "hum" you're hearing is mostly a high frequency component (buzz) that gets filtered out by the lo-pass filter of the recording outs. But if it's 60Hz hum that disappears, I don't get it. Must be voodoo...
Bob, a friend of mine that has played through one for a while said it's the nature of the beast. I fought it for 4-6 months. I gave up. I tried everything under the sun. It hummed from anything above zero and just got worse as the level increased. Like the worse Tele single coil hum you could ever ask for. Great preamps, just a bad reverb circuit.
I got the preamp and I have a few questions. In the clean (Rhythm) mode, the rhythm/bright switch makes absolutely no difference in tone. This pre sounded a lot brighter than the one I tried a few weeks ago and I'm hoping it's stuck in the bright setting.
In the lead mode, the lead/bright makes a huge difference when on.
Also, in the lead mode, the lead "fat" switch does next to nothing and maybe nothing at all. How dramatic should this be?
